BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to a network environment, and, in particular, to management of a network environment having various data processing systems, such as server systems and client systems. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a system, method, and program for managing users, groups, servers and resources in a heterogeneous network environment having various networked systems, such as server systems and client systems, running under different software platforms.
2. Description of the Related Art
A network administrator that administers a homogeneous network (i.e.,.a network that operates under a single operating system platform) must perform the tasks of setting up and managing the users, groups, servers, and resources for the homogeneous network. In managing the users, groups, servers, and resources, the administrator typically uses an administrator system belonging to the homogeneous network to configure and control access, users, groups, servers, and resources within the homogeneous network. The users are only configured and managed with respect to the homogeneous network environment.
Various network environments that operate under different software platforms (i.e., Windows NT, OS/2, UNIX, LINUX, AIX, etc.) exist. If a user, group, server or resource is to be set up and managed for a different network environment operating under another software platform, then another administrator system, other servers, and other clients that all operate under the other platform must be utilized to accomplish the management of the user, group, server or resource for this different network environment. For example, one set of configurations, managerial tasks, and hardware systems must be used for managing a user, group, server or resource for a network environment operating under Windows NT while another set of configurations, managerial tasks, and hardware systems must be used for managing the same user, group, server, and resource for a network environment operating under OS/2. The present trend, however, is to allow users or groups to access heterogeneous networks (i.e., network environment including different software platforms) and to enable users or groups to roam and access a network through any system regardless of the specific platform under which the system is operating (i.e., to manage a user on the network in the same general way regardless of the specific platform of the client system).
The problem is that a user, group, server, or resource must be configured and managed for each and every specific platform within the heterogeneous network environment. Configuration and management of a user, group, server, or resource is preferably the same for each and every different type of specific platform within the heterogeneous network. Thus, any changes made to the configuration and management of a user, group, server, or resource has to be repeated and tracked for each other platform as well. Management of a user, group, server, or resource for a heterogeneous network environment becomes a very tedious and involved task since the user, group, server, or resource has to be separately managed for each network operating under a different platform within the heterogeneous network environment. Therefore, the present invention recognizes that the configuration and management of users, groups, servers, and resources for a heterogeneous network environment needs to be centralized and simplified.
A system, method, and program for managing users, groups, servers, and resources in a heterogeneous network environment are disclosed. The network environment includes a configuration server coupled to a number of deployment servers, which each operates under a specific platform. In response to receipt of a generic command for management of a user, group, server, or resource by the configuration server, a determination is made based on pre-assignment as to which one of the deployment servers is the appropriate deployment server that is to receive the generic command. The generic command is mapped to a specific-platform command executable under the respective specific platform of the appropriate deployment server. The specific-platform command is executed by the appropriate deployment server to complete a task for performing the generic command. In a preferred embodiment, a set of generic commands for managing the users, groups, servers, and resources in the heterogeneous networked environment is defined. The set of generic commands is correlated to sets of specific-platform commands for different specific platforms. One of the sets of specific-platform commands is determined for a respective specific platform. The specific-platform command is identified within the set of specific-platform commands that is correlated to the generic command being processed by the deployment server.